Heavy pot smoking linked to smaller brains

SMOKING cannabis has been linked to having a small brain – at least if the dope is taken in large doses, over a long period.

Murat Yücel at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues scanned the brains of 15 heavy users, who had smoked at least five joints daily for more than 10 years. The volume of their hippocampus, involved in memory and regulating emotion, was on average 12 per cent smaller than non-users, while the amygdala, involved in feeling fear and aggression, was 7.1 per cent smaller (Archives of General Psychiatry, vol 65, p 694). The cannabis …

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